Google and T-Mobile just announced the HTC Dream as the world’s first Android-powered handset, calling it the T-Mobile G1, and surprise! surprise!, Walt Mossberg of All Things D has published his G1 first impressions! Aside from mentioning the iPhone in nearly every instance he mentioned the G1, and mentioning Apple in nearly every instance he mentioned Google, Mossberg has brought to light some of the lesser explained features of this new and much-hyped handset from Google, T-Mobile and HTC.

Having played with a G1 prototype, Mossberg says the keys on it are “a bit flat, and you have to reach your right thumb around a bulging portion of the phone’s body to type, but it’s a real keyboard. And there’s also a BlackBerry-like trackball that supplements the touch screen navigation.” Overall, he rated the keyboard OK, but not great. At least there’s a keyboard, though, and that’s better than just having a touchscreen to type on, at least for some people.

The rest of Mossberg’s G1 first impressions article compared the G1 to the iPhone and vice versa. Like the iPhone, the T-Mobile G1 will have an avenue for users to download third-party applications (called Marketplace), its software is slick, and its web browser is built on the same open-source tech used in Mobile Safari.

Unlike the iPhone, however, the T-Mobile G1 will have copy-paste out of the box (thankfully!) and a program called MMS “which sends photos to other phones without using email.” Photos can be taken with the G1’s 3 megapixel camera, BUT it will not be able to record video (just like the iPhone!).

The list goes on: the G1 will have a built-in AmazonMP3 download service to counter Apple’s iTunes Wi-Fi music store for the iPhone, and will be locked with T-Mobile at launch (the reason why it’s only going to cost $179).

A few more G1 features to frown about:

– Bluetooth is available, but there’s no A2DP (yet)
– Video downloading/sideloading is supported, but it doesn’t have a built-in video player (!)
– Practically no internal memory, though it will ship with 1GB memory card (support for up to 8GB)
– Non-standard headphone jack (can be remedied with adapters, thankfully)

Well, if the T-Mobile G1 got you interested, you got plenty of time to think about purchasing it since it won’t be released until October 22nd. As mentioned earlier it will be sold locked to T-Mobile in a two-year contract. There are apparently a few caveats to buying the T-Mobile G1, but it seems like a pretty good smartphone (for something that runs a new OS). And besides, it’s got a removable battery. iPhone can’t touch that.